Sunday, October 31, 2010

I had an inkling that Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" was going to be big a few weeks ago when I tried to make a hotel reservation in Washington, DC and found that no hotel rooms in the city were available this weekend (I had decided to combine a trip to the rally with some other business).

On Saturday morning, I realized that the rally would indeed be something unprecedented; at 9 AM, the inbound Metro Red line train was jam packed with rallygoers at the third stop (Twinbrook), even though nothing was scheduled till 12 AM. By the sixth stop, the train was having difficulty getting its doors closed, leading to delays.

The odd thing about the rally was that there were hardly any instructions as to what we were to do at the "million moderate march", other than to have some fun while engaging is a respectful discourse with other people and being willing to listen. Rallygoers were to make of the event whatever they wished. For some, it was a massive Halloween Party; for others it was a chance to express dismay at the rhetoric of Glenn Beck and Fox News. Whatever it was, there was a widespread feeling of wanting to participate in something historic.

On the train, collective coping behaviors emerged from the unexpected mass intimacy. When we got to stations where one or two riders needed to get off, other riders squeezed aside to make sure they could emerge from the train. Later, above ground, the crowd would make a special effort to part for rallygoers in wheelchairs and parents with children in strollers. Police cars and ambulances drove through streets packed with people because somehow the crowd recognized a necessity.

In the part of the crowd where I ended up, none of us could really hear or see the speeches or entertainment, but nobody seemed to care. We can watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on TV any evening, and we knew without watching what he might say. It was the rest of the crowd we were there to be with. Close to where I stood, a young man was trying to climb a tree to get a better view; there was already another fellow up in the tree. The crowd took notice, and began to cheer him on. Before long, there was a chant of "YES YOU CAN" that took hold of the crowd, and the fellow in the tree tried his best to help the climber up.

This morning, reading the press accounts, I was dismayed to see that much of the "mainstream media" seemed to miscomprehend the Rally for Sanity by focusing on the show rather than the audience. Whether the rally was 215,000 people or 420,000 people, the media's mistake is akin to reporting that YouTube is a site for stupid pet trick videos. The best way to understand the Sanity Rally's significance, in fact, is to make the analogy that YouTube is to Fox (or CBS, for that matter) as the Rally for Sanity is to almost any previous political rally. Finally, crowdsourcing has come to the crowd.

Nonetheless, when Jon Stewart began to speak at the end of the rally, the crowd suddenly became quiet and strained to hear. "These are hard times, not end times" we heard. There was something about the miracle of the Lincoln Tunnel, where cars strain to get through, merging from 20 lines or so down to two, and it somehow works even though the people in one car might be totally different from the people in the next car, the traffic moves forward concession by sensible concession, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land, it's New Jersey.

But we didn't need Jon Stewart to tell us that, we had discovered that by being pressed together in a massive crowd, and by learning how to get around anyway.

That's the day that the UN conducts hearings as part of its Universal Periodic Review of the state framework for human rights in Honduras.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a once every four years dialogue between the 47 members sitting on the Human Rights Council and the national government of the country under review, plus any registered non-governmental organizations that ask to participate. The result, no sooner than 2 days after the hearing, is a report which contains a summary of the discussion plus a series of recommendations for the national government. It is up to the national government to carry those recommendations out. It is up to the UN to hold the governments accountable for non-compliance.

In the case of Honduras, the submissions can be found at the UN Office of the High Commissioner website here. The submissions include the government's report to the Human Rights Council, in every UN official language, a compilation of UN agency comments on conditions that arose since the last review, a summary of comments by third parties, and a series of questions submitted in advance by governments who are part of the Human Rights Council.

Honduras's own report was submitted on August 23, 2010. The report Honduras submitted is about the government structures, rules, and regulations that support the various areas of human rights that Honduras must report on in its periodic review. A quick review of the recent submissions by other Central American countries suggests that this is the correct content. The entire report consists of 134 paragraphs.

Paragraph 4 of Honduras's submission states

"The approach adopted in the universal periodic review involved the various Government agencies and branches of the State, all of which provided input to this report in their own areas of competence."

Except, of course, when they did not provide input.

A Tiempo article from Saturday noted that according to sources in the Executive branch, the report was completed without the collaboration of the Ministry of Security or the Supreme Court.

After a brief introduction, paragraphs 7-13, on the current political situation in Honduras, contain just about the only references to the coup of June 28, 2009 and the subsequent human rights violations that continue through the present. Paragraph 8 notes that Porfirio Lobo Sosa has complied with the terms of the Guaymuras Accords. Paragraph 9 identifies the official truth commission and its mission statement. Paragraph 12 lumps all human rights violations, from any time period, together and notes that investigations are either ongoing, or the cases have been determined to be common crimes.

Paragraphs 14-37 discuss political and civil rights, including the right to life, integrity of person, eradication of torture, prisons, access to justice, and freedom of expression.

Paragraphs 38-74 are concerned with economic and social rights, such as health, education, culture, ethnic groups, work, housing, and food.

Paragraphs 75-125 are concerned with the rights of vulnerable groups, such as some ethnic minorities, women, children, migrants, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered people, the old, disabled, and the right of everyone to a healthy environment.

The UN paperwork notes that sixteen stakeholders submitted comments on the report, and provides a 14 page summary of those comments. You'll need to read Spanish, English, and French to take in the whole document, since not everything has been translated. The ten page Amnesty International submission from April, 2010 is located here on the UN website. Article 19, a group interested in freedom of the press, published their comment on their own website, located here. The other comments are probably filed in the same document archive as the Amnesty report, but I did not take the time to locate them.

Finally, there are a series of questions that the countries that make up the Human Rights Council have compiled. The countries who submitted questions include the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland. Their questions primarily focus on human rights violations arising out of the events of June 28, 2009, the de facto regime, and that of Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

A group of three representatives from the Human Rights Council, representatives of Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation, will compile a summary of the discussion and a series of recommendations for Honduras after the meeting. Honduras will then have a chance to respond to this document, and then it will be adopted in a subsequent meeting.

Honduras will be represented in the hearing by several cabinet ministers and presidential advisers, including Maria Antonietta Guillén, Áfrico Madrid, and Ana Pineda. Also representing Honduras will be the head of the legislative committee concerned with human rights, Orle Solis, and the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights, Sandra Ponce. The hearing will last 3 hours on the morning of November 4.

Last weekend, I went up to Genting for relaxing and escape from the warm weather in KL. Wondering how could Malaysians live in such condition in the next decades, if the temperature going up consistently?﻿

Amazingly, when I turn-on the television, a GREEN programme was on-screen. Instead of sleeping, I watched the whole documentary about some great ideas or innovations being researched by scientists in US. The programme highlighting 4 green ideas:

1. Green Insulator

The insulator is made up with a special liquid gel, which could prevent heat transfer up to 350 degree Celsius. It can be applied in the glass (transparent) of any building, to bring the sun light in, without heating the interior. We can expect 20% energy saving from air-conditioner and lightnings.

2. Green Roof

We heard of the this idea long time ago, where people planting on the roof.- it could absorb heat from entering the building.- it could release fresher air back to environment just like jungle did.- it is definitely better aura than concrete jungle.

In view of the decreasing food supply nowadays, planting vegetables or fruits above the roofs can be a good business.

3. Fiber Optic

I like this kind of technology which could bring the free flowing sun light from outside to inside of the building.

Fiber optic is flexible enough to bend and extend as long as you like. It is natural, no sound, and research show that student study under such light could let them concentrate more on studies.

Fantastic !!!

4. Nanotechnology Solar Panel

As we know, solar panel could turn sun light to generate electricity. But, it is heavy, thick and space consuming. With nanotechnology, scientists converted it into much much smaller solar panel which can be handle easily , and it can cat onto any surface of a building, making the whole building like a power plant. The only shortfall is this kind of green technology is the most expensive.

Malaysia could invite experts from other countries to design and construct using such green technology.

While Malaysian market is hovering around 1,500 points, a ground survey shows that local investors are skeptical about the sustainability of our market. Bursa Malaysia's website shows that local retail participation is merely at 25% daily.

Maybe, we could look aboard to find some other investing options. And, China's banking stocks could suit investors appetite for the following reasons:-

China was an under-performer this year

China's banks should report better profits

Robust loan demand

Due to the higher interest rate being announced recently, banks of China should experienced expansion of net interest margin for the next few quarters. Although loan growth is moderating now, it was still high, and will continue as long as China's economy is growing. We can't deny that China is the world's engine of growth currently, in which we persist for the next few years, at least.

Will China raise rate again?

Depending how fast and big the housing bubble was, China would continue it's monetary tightening policy going forward. In contrast, Malaysia had raised interest rate 3 times this year, albeit small percentage, China is lagging us although with a more serious property bubble.

However, there are risks involved.

Banks could be facing liquidity problem

Potential of loan defaults

Huge loans allocated to local government's infrastructure projects

In order to minimized risks, investors should favor BIG lenders (pic) and avoid smaller banks, given their greater capital sufficiency.